ENGL 3564 Romanticism
Instructor Contact:
Conny Cassity
Email: conny.cassity@colorado.edu
About the Course:
Boasting some of the most dramatic, innovative, philosophical, and poignant novels in English, the Romantic era marks a flourishing of the novel as a literary form. This class examines how writers like Jane Austen, William Earle, and Ann Radcliffe reflect the values and ideals at the heart of Romanticism. We will study their texts in connection with relevant historical context and consider how they experiment with different literary forms and genres.
Course Prerequisites: No prerequisites required.
Objectives:
Literature classes aim to teach you three things: how to read a text carefully and critically, how to produce original and perceptive analyses about that work, and how to communicate those insights clearly. This course is designed to help you achieve these skills, as well as to provide you with basic knowledge about these writers’ works and to foster understanding of the Romantic era. All assignments in this course are geared toward helping you achieve these goals. Regular and active engagement in this class will help you do the following:
1. Define the literary period of Romanticism and demonstrate your acquired knowledge through regular class discussion activities and presentations;
2. Identify and describe key features of the sub-genres of Romantic novels;
3. Articulate how, why, and in what ways the Romantic novel contributed to the shaping of British literature;
4. Apply your gained knowledge and understanding to academic work as well as to your own lives and what you read or watch today;
5. Analyze how Romantic writers discuss individual rights, identities, and responsibilities alongside their literary and artistic experimentation;
6. Illustrate the relationship between genre and content in our chosen texts in written form through module essays;
7. Develop your own opinions from deep interrogation of these issues, which you will be able support in written form throughout the course.
Required Texts:
Anonymous. The Woman of Colour. 1808. Edited by Lyndon J. Dominique, Broadview Press, 2007. ISBN: 9781551111766.
Austen, Jane. Persuasion. 1818. Edited by Linda Bree, Broadview Press, 1998. ISBN: 9781551111315.
Earle, William. Obi; or, The History of Three-Fingered Jack. 1800. Edited by Srinivas Aravamudan, Broadview Press, 2005. ISBN: 9781551116693.
Hays, Mary. Memoirs of Emma Courtney. 1796. Edited by Marilyn L. Brooks, Broadview Press, 2000. ISBN: 9781551111551.
Radcliffe, Ann. A Sicilian Romance. 1790. Edited by Alison Milbank, Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199537396
Robinson, Mary. A Letter to the Women of England and The Natural Daughter. 1799. Edited by Sharon M. Setzer, Broadview Press, 2003. ISBN: 9781551112367.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Edited by D. L. MacDonald and Kathleen Scherf, 3rd edition, Broadview Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781554811038.
PDFs to download from Canvas. Links to purchase eBook varieties from Broadview Press will be available in the course syllabus.
Grading:
Students will complete a series of analysis-based discussion posts, reading quizzes, and a midterm and final project.